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CNBC's Cramer Returns After Squawk

CNBC's Cramer Returns After Squawk

CNBC's Cramer Returns After Squawk

Dec. 22, 1998

https://www.apnews.com/bda9b0569453172a2af771c6155f8964

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NEW YORK (AP) _ CNBC is bringing back money manager James Cramer as a guest analyst Wednesday after a one-show absence following controversial comments he made about the stock of a small Internet company.

Cramer has been appearing biweekly as an unpaid guest analyst on ``Squawk Box'' for about a year, but CNBC asked him not to appear on last week's show while the network reviewed his comments regarding WavePhore Inc.

WavePhore complained that Cramer said on the Dec. 2 ``Squawk Box'' that he had tried to ``short'' WavePhore Inc.'s stock _ a legal investment strategy based on the hope that a company's stock price will fall. Cramer has denied that he tried to short the stock and said he did not mean to give that impression.

CNBC spokesman George Jamison said Monday that the network would discuss the results of its review on Wednesday's ``Squawk Box.''

``He was never suspected of doing anything wrong. It was just a matter of reviewing the way in which the information was presented and its appropriateness,'' Jamison said.

In short-selling, an investor sells borrowed stock, hoping for a drop in the price before buying shares on the open market to return the borrowed stock.

WavePhore stock had soared 72 percent to $15.25 the day before Cramer's comments but have fallen sharply since, closing Monday at $8.37 1/2 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. WavePhore has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Nasdaq to investigate trading prior to the remarks.

Cramer has said he does not own any shares of WavePhore and that he discloses all of his holdings to CNBC and other media where he appears, including The New York Observer and TheStreet.Com, the Internet investment news service he co-founded two years ago.